That's on "Castle Sweet Castle"

The aftermath of the Golden Oak library's destruction and its affect on Twilight has been explored many times in fan fiction, so I was interested in seeing the "canon" take on the issue.

I liked that the library's destruction was treated as a personal loss for Twilight and Spike, and that Twilight wasn't immediately comfortable in the new castle. I also liked the references to past episodes involving the library, culminating in the tree-root chandelier.

It felt like the writers planned this episode, in part, as a tribute to Golden Oaks, and I appreciated it.

Unfortunately, I feel the episode was hampered by one major miscalculation. Simply put, the rest of the main six have known Twilight long enough by now to at least have a general idea of what would or would not feel like "home" to her. I do not believe that Applejack would actually think that Twilight would feel more at home with indoor bales of hay. Also, while Rainbow Dash unquestionably possesses the biggest ego of the six, a major part of her character arc over the last four seasons has been her learning to balance her extremely strong self-esteem with humility, so seeing her display her own trophies as a way of cheering up Twilight feels like character regression. Really, all the ponies feel like caricatures of themselves in this particular plot cul-de-sac (to borrow a phrase).

This narrative diversion doesn't ruin the episode, but it does detract from it by taking focus away from what should be its narrative core (the characters reaction to the loss of the library). Still, despite that misstep, I feel "Castle Sweet Castle" gets far more right than it does wrong.